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Obole - Adalgodus II
| Issuer | Bishopric of Geneva |
|---|---|
| Year | 1031 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Central design featuring a stylized church or temple facade with a triangular pediment above a colonnade, rendered in the primitive Romanesque manner typical of early medieval episcopal coinage. The architectural motif, likely representing the cathedral of Geneva, occupies the entire field and is executed in low relief with bold, somewhat crude strokes characteristic of hammered silver coinage of the period. A circular Latin legend surrounds the central device, reading + GENEVA CIVITAS, identifying the issuing city. The flan is irregular in shape with slightly ragged edges, consistent with hand-struck production of the early eleventh century. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Adalgodus II held the bishopric of Geneva from roughly 1025 until his death around 1044, during a period when the bishop functioned as the effective secular authority over the city following the dissolution of Burgundian royal power after Rudolph III died without heirs in 1032. The Kingdom of Burgundy passed to Conrad II of the Holy Roman Empire that year, but coinage rights in Geneva remained with the bishop — a jurisdictional arrangement that would persist, with interruptions, for centuries.
The HMZ 1#1-288a attribution places this among the earliest documented episcopal issues from Geneva.